The Corpse Bride 2
by Nicole97
Summary: Emily is feeling more down than ever after she parted ways with Victor. Her friends in the underworld offer to help, but will she ever be happy again or ever meet her special soul mate that she'd always dreamed of having?


Pale smoky butterflies with silver trim on the ends of their wings flocked together until the obvious shape of Emily, the Corpse Bride formed in center of the large office of Elder Gutknecht. He wasn't there. He and the others were probably still in the land of the living for Victor's wedding. A pang of loss sliced through her chest.

_I had to do it. I had to let them think that I'm happy so he will be happy._ She sighed.

_At least I'm free from my vow._

Slowly, she turned and walked down the steps leading from Elder Gutknecht's tower, her dress train trailing behind her, to the main square where a statue of a skeleton horse stood permanently on a pedestal. She crossed the empty street to the Ball and Socket pub. Her round eyes glanced at the sign with a carving of the comical Bonejangles on it. She pushed open the rotting door to the pub to find the place empty besides a few people. Mrs. Plum milled around the other side of the counter washing glasses with her dirty apron that she also used to clean basically everything else that could possibly be cleaned. Luckily, the dead didn't seem to need watch what they ate anyway. After all, since they're dead, what would it possibly do to them? Mayhew was the only one sitting at the bar drinking out of a 'cleaned' mug. Although rotting food didn't seem to bother the dead, they could still get drunk if they had too much rum. Other than the skeleton band practicing a gentle blues tune, they were the only three in there.

Emily couldn't help it. She wanted to forget Victor, but she found herself sitting on the stool next to Mayhew opening her mouth to ask about Victor.

"So, how long did you know Victor?"

Mayhew took a sip before answering. He was staring at nothing in particular while trying to remember.

"His father hired me when Victor was twelve years of age. He was always quiet, but still had more friends other than his dog and myself. I don't remember their names."

Emily smiled picturing the pre-teened Victor with what she assumed was Scraps while still alive. She giggled. "What are some funny things he did growing up?"

It was Mayhew's turn to smile. "When he was fourteen, he tripped while kicking a ball around with his friends and fell in a pile of horse droppings."

Emily covered her mouth while she laughed.

"He started liking this one girl when he was fifteen, but she rejected him. He took it pretty hard, but then he got home to find out that Scraps died and then he alienated everybody except his parents and the boys at the fish market."

Emily sighed. "Poor guy."

Mayhew shrugged. "He seems happy now to be with Victoria."

Emily nodded. "Yeah." She said sadly. She wanted him to be happy, but still missed him although it hadn't even been a day since she last saw him.

"Do you need a drink?" A skeleton behind the counter asked. Apparently, he had eavesdropped on the conversation.

Emily shrugged. "Sure." She'd never drunken before, but didn't feel up to arguing.

The skeleton filled a mug with rum and slid it across to Emily's waiting hands. She was about to take sip, but a bony hand blocked her mouth from the mug.

"That's too strong for you doll, 'specially if you'd never had rum before in your afterlife."

Emily turned to look at the owner of the voice. It was Bonejangles, the skeleton that stood out because of his bowler hat and large jaw. He took the cup away from her.

"But me, I've got immunity to it."

He dumped the rum into his open jaw. The magical substance that seemed to hold bones together without muscle allowed the drink to be consumed without falling out of the gap in the bottom of his mouth.

Mayhew shrugged and went back to pondering, staring out into outer space.

Emily's gaze sat on him, feeling sorry for him. Bonejangles noticed.

"It's like that for all of us the first few days." He gulped the last of the rum. "I think your reaction might have been the worst though."

Emily sighed. "Yeah, I couldn't believe it."

"Same with the rest of us. But I was able to just forget about it and have fun."

Emily laughed. "You actually got a job, I'm still getting the hang of it even after fifteen years." She sighed. "But now that Victor is gone, I think it might take even longer." She looked up at Bonejangles.

"How did you die?"

Bonejangles grinned. "Well, I was fighting a navy seal-"

"No, you were trying to impress a girl and fell in garbage squisher thing!"

Bonejangles turned with a scowl on his face. The one responsible was the drummer skeleton.

"I told you not to tell the embarrassing story!"

Emily chuckled. "It's actually not that hard to believe."

The other skeletons laughed and then returned to practicing.

Bonejangles clicked his teeth in annoyance. After a few seconds he popped his neck and stood up from his stool.

"I'm gonna get back to practice with the guys." He pat Mayhew's back as he walked by. "Hang in there buddy."

Emily rolled her eyes and then turned to Mayhew. "It's ok, we can be sad together. The pain will subside eventually." She added sympathetically.

Mayhew just nodded and continued staring.

Emily sighed and turned on her stool to watch the band practice. It was funny how they did it. They would learn different tunes that one of the skeletons wrote, and then when the performing came around, Bonejangles would improvise the whole thing. The song each had their own starting signal, either knocking on someone's skull, using their ribcages as a xylophone, or even a little tap on a drum. Then, the band knew exactly what song Bonejangles wanted to add words to. It was interesting, and proved that even though dead, you could still have amazing creativity skills.

Emily pulled the train of her dress off the floor and set it in her lap. As a corpse, you could never change clothes, or renew them. No one knew why, or what prevented them to do it, but they just never could. Another con to being dead. But the land of the dead always seemed more alive than the land of the living ever was.

Emily jumped out of her thoughts when the soft blues changed dramatically to a loud trill on the piano. The band then broke into a heavy metal rock genre song. The empty pub seemed to wake ever so slightly, and a few stands of corpses came in through the back doors.

A tug at the hem of Emily's skirt bought her attention to the floor. Expecting scraps, Victor's dead dog, she was slightly surprised to see General Bonesapart.

"What is it?" She asked the dwarf.

"Barkus, we've got him locked up in a rusty cage to rot. I just felt that you'd want to know." He replied.

Emily gave a small smile. "Thank you." She said sweetly.

"Your welcome. He'll pay for what he did to you, his afterlife will never be enjoyable for him!" He scowled, but his face softened when he turned to look back up at Emily.

"Well, if there's anything you need, you've got us friends for help."

Emily nodded, but didn't say anything, worried she might choke.

But deep down, she knew it wasn't Barkus troubling her. It was Victor.


End file.
